Territory residents' rights case now with federal appeals court

11:37 AM,
Apr. 28, 2014

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The issue of equal rights for residents of U.S. territories now sits with a federal appeals court, according to attorney Neil Weare, a former Guam resident, who last week filed the opening brief for the appeal.

Weare, president of the "We the People Project," last year filed a lawsuit in the federal court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of a man in American Samoa, where residents are considered U.S. nationals, but unlike Guam residents, are not U.S. citizens. According to Weare, American Samoa's status is much like Guam's status before the Organic Act.